Buhari leaves for London amid health fears

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has met with 82 young women who were freed on Saturday after being kidnapped by Boko Haram over three years ago.

The girls were among a group of 270 schoolgirls kidnapped in April 2014 by the militant group Boko Haram, which has waged an eight-year-old insurgency to create an Islamist caliphate, killing thousands and forcing more than two million from their homes.

ABUJA-The 82 freed Chibok girls have arrived Presidential Villa, Abuja to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari.

A Nigerian government official says that five Boko Haram commanders were released in exchange for the Chibok girls.

The 82 girls, released in a prisoner swap, arrive in Abuja for health checkups before meeting the president. The girls were released near the town of Banki in Borno state near Cameroon and will be transported to the capital, Abuja.

To much of the world, the mass abduction of almost 300 girls from a Nigerian school as they were preparing for their exams three years ago was a shocking introduction to the atrocities by Boko Haram, galvanising global attention to a group that had been terrorising Nigerians for years.

Some parents of the kidnapped girls gathered in the capital, Abuja, to celebrate the release, while others expressed anxiety over the fate of the 113 girls who remain missing after the mass abduction from a Chibok boarding school in 2014.

"The President has repeatedly expressed his total commitment towards ensuring the safe return of the #ChibokGirls, and all other Boko Haram captives", Buhari's office said in a statement.

According to the statement, Buhari is optimistic about the release of the remaining girls seized in the Chibok raid.

"The president has said that as numerous girls are alive, his administration will strive to get them back", Femi Adesina, a spokesman for the president, said.

" The president is pleased announce that negotiations to release more of the Chibok Girls have born fruit with the release of 82 more Girls today".

The audacious kidnapping brought the insurgency to world attention, triggering global outrage that galvanized support from the former United States first lady Michelle Obama and Hollywood stars.

The Rev. Enoch Mark, whose two daughters have been among the missing, was still awaiting word if they were among those freed. Another 21 girls were released in October under a deal mediated by the International Red Cross.

Saturday's release marks the largest negotiated release so far of the 276 girls whose abduction in 2014 drew global attention to the threat of Nigeria's terrorists.

The girls were handed over on Saturday in exchange for Boko Haram suspects after negotiations.

Dozens of others have escaped from the group and a few have been freed in army raids, with one found wandering in the bush near Boko Haram's forest fortress in January.

This came even as a chieftain of the party and former vice president, Atiku Abubakar lauded the president, saying his administration's efforts at rescuing the girls are paying off.